Hello all, figured it was time for an update...
My apologies for being so intermittent with my posts here but rest assured, I am still fighting the good fight and still working diligently towards sex offender legislation reform, at least from my chair.
At SOSEN, I have been very busy with updating all of the brochures to reflect the new change of address, participating more on the member forum, working the hotline two days a week, and trying to get the next newsletter out, which I'm still working on. All the while, being a Mom and a wife and maintaining my graphic design duties. Just finished a really big issue for an online magazine and I have more projects awaiting my immediate attention. You'd think Life on the Mountain would be all serene watching deer and squirrels at play, but sadly, lately, I've barely stepped foot outside.
Oh, and I almost forgot: I've been planning my daughter's wedding, too! She is getting married here on the mountain next month and there is still a ton of planning to do...
I'm not complaining, I like being busy, but I am finally learning the limits of what I am able to do. Recently, I've even declined to take on more responsibilities which is just as foreign to me as trying to speak Japanese.
Still, last week, when my good friend and fellow ATAT (Arkansas Time After Time) representative Carla, asked me to accompany her to Fort Smith to attend a community meeting at the Fort Smith police department for a presentation on sex offenders. I thought, oooh, that sounds like fun and I dropped everything to go. In attendance were maybe eight people. Not a huge crowd by any means, but Fort Smith Detective Michael McCoy gave a thorough presentation and invited the audience to participate. We brought our materials from ATAT and were given many opportunities to bring to light the problems with current laws and how they affect offenders and their families. One woman was there because her friend was currently incarcerated for an internet crime and told how it was a clear case of entrapment.
At one point, the detective was talking about residency restrictions and came right out and said they don't work! We were thrilled to hear that he felt that way.
Overall, I think we did great work there and handed out our brochures. Channel 5 news were there and interviewed me. Here, you can see a very short piece of the interview in this link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3CoWM7rU-s
I really didn't like the way they took my statement out of context as I had been talking about anti-sex offenders and the way my statement is portrayed, it sounds like I am talking about sex offenders. Oh well. I've learned a lesson there. Note to self: Don't use the word "wolves" when referring to people who hate sex offenders. Even Detective McCoy was portrayed as someone who hates sex offenders, but he wasn't like that at all. They completely took his statements out of context as well.
I was really happy with the way they featured Arkansas Time After Time in the news story, though, so that's something.
Yesterday, I learned how Barbara Farris has decided to try yet another business venture and start up an organization called Sex Offender Solutions (SOS). Of course, for a $45 fee, this smacks of a scam, but she promises to find housing for sex offenders -- people we all know she flat out hates. Of course, all any sex offender has to do is use another service in the same area provided by Randy Young and he won't ship you off to some remote camp in the middle of nowhere. His housing solutions are real solutions.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/sfl-sex-offender-entrepeneur-b071809,0,7478279.story
A reporter from Fox Channel 35 contacted us through our hotline yesterday seeking Ms. Farris' contact info, clearly contacting the wrong organization. I immediately returned his call and reached his voicemail. I left a message just saying who I was and who I was with and left my phone number. Since he did not call me back and this news story appeared today, I took that to mean that he was able to get the contact information he was seeking.
http://www.myfoxorlando.com/dpp/news/local/092511-Sex-offender-village-planned-for-Lake-County
Still, I took it upon myself to email the reporter anyway. I shared numerous YouTube videos on Ms. Farris, included a bullet point list of her colorful history and invited the reporter to check out SOSEN.org and our materials and also the library of articles about her on http://absolutezerounites.blogspot.com/. I encouraged the reporter to call me back, but frankly, I am not holding my breath. We shall see. Some of the news media is starting to catch on that the typical "grab your torches and pitchfork" type articles against sex offenders are increasingly waning in ratings in favor of the real truths about the ridiculousness of the laws, how they don't work and how much money is being spent to implement them. I am hopeful that Fox 35 will see the veritable gold mind they could have just by reporting the facts about the laws, SOSEN and SOS and the lovely Ms. Farris.
Stay tuned.
